The purpose of this study was to find the type of stories in which the children in the first and second grades were most interested. The writer wanted to determine whether or not there was a preference for fantastic or realistic stories in these grades, whether or not boys preferred one type of stories and girls another, and whether or not age and intelligence entered in as determining factors.

Common carnivore species in the Czech Republic, such as fox, badger, marten, or weasel have not been recently paid much attention. This mammalian group is not easy to monitor but with modern technologies animals can be observed almost undisturbed. I collected data using camera traps in the Polabí region in Central Bohemia, about 30 km from Prague. I placed 73 camera traps in four different habitats (wetland; alluvial forest; mixed forest; and scrub grassland). Each habitat was represented by 3-4 localities in a fragmented landscape, made up of seminatural habitats and human-used areas. Over 366 days of monitoring I recorded 8 carnivore species, one of them non-native (golden jackal). None of the allegedly common invasive species in the Czech Republic (raccoon dog, american mink, raccoon) were found. The habitats did not differ in number of observed species, which is probably due to a low number of species found and the small size of the study area. Habitat preferences and seasonal and circadian activity in my study area generally correspond to the findings of previous ecological studies, but the novel aspect of my research is the robust, statistically analysed results based on long-term quantitative data. One conclusion I consider important from the conservation point of view is that most of our carnivore...

Title: Attitudes competitors kickboxing coach to lead the way during the match Objectives: The main objective of this study is to examine how athletes perceive their coach in leadership (coaching) during the match, whether this behavior coincides with their preferences and what attitudes they have. Furthermore, these results are interpreted as a feedback to coach who lead a match to the increase effectiveness of its leadership and also show that perception during the match and athletes's preferences are very individual and different. And therefore coaches should not follow just generalized research into coaching but they should work with each athlete individually and according to theirs specific needs. Methods: In this thesis were used a method of structured questionnaire and semiguided interview. The structured questionnaire was used in the detecting method of coach leading during the match and preferences of participants. The semiguided interview method was used to specify preferences and attitudes towards a method of coach leadership. Results: It was find out It was found that the differences between preferences and the perceived reality occur not only for individual athletes, but also between them. It turned out that there is some consensus, as in the perception of coach's behavior during the...

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Kevin Gwinner / Under the leadership of the Van Eekeren family, Land O’ Frost has become one of the fastest growing meat processing manufacturers in the United States. “Premium” is Land O’ Frost’s flagship brand which makes up 57% of the company’s total sales dollars. Of the line of Premium lunchmeats, Honey Smoked Turkey is ranked #3 in total sales dollars. However, if you rank the product’s performance by dividing its all commodity volume (ACV) by the number of pounds sold, it is ranked #7 out of the nine single pack flavors offered in retail. There has been internal speculation that the Honey Smoked Turkey’s sales performance is related to a lack of honey/sweetness flavor in the lunchmeat. As a result, Land O’ Frost needed to determine if the current level of honey/sweetness flavor of the Honey Smoked Turkey needs to be increased in order to stimulate higher growth in sales. A third party consultant conducted a consumer test between Land O’ Frost’s honey smoked turkey and their top two competitors’ honey smoked turkey. Based on the results, the Land O’ Frost product was the least likely preferred and was rated as having the lowest sweetness flavor profile among the three products. In an effort to develop a sweeter tasting honey turkey, different test formulations were developed using different honeys, levels of honey and sweeteners. The lighter the honey grade the less flavor impact was present in the turkey. As a result, a test formula containing twice the amount of light amber honey and the maximum amount of sugar was developed to be sweeter and to offer better marketing claims to potentially attract more customers. Due to product process differences between the Land O’ Frost’s honey smoked turkey and its competitor’s, the decision was made to conduct another consumer test between the current control and the newly formulated test product. The data determined that there was not a significant difference between the two products tested. A triangle test was conducted via a third party and it also confirmed the same conclusion. With the test formula having a slightly higher cost per pound than the current control formula, it was decided internally that the test formula could replace the current formula if the test formula price per pound can be adjusted to the same cost as the control. I would recommend that the level of sugar in the new test formula be slightly decreased until the formula cost per pound is the same as the control. The cost of meat raw materials used by Land O’ Frost often changes due to market price conditions. The new formulated honey smoked turkey’s selling potential would still have a positive impact by utilizing claims such as “double the honey” and “lower sodium” on the package. In this case, the selling potential increase would be more heavily executed from a marketing perspective than from flavor development.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Aleksan Shanoyan / The purpose of this research is to evaluate and gain a better understanding of the economic feasibility of Kansas farmers growing energy sorghum for biofuel production. The net returns for 11 crop systems that included a no-till or reduced-till option and the rotations involved wheat, grain sorghum, dual-purpose sorghum, and photoperiod sensitive sorghum were simulated in SIMETAR© developed by Richardson, Shumann, and Feldman (2004) using historical data on yields and prices. The price and yield data originates from an agronomic study conducted in Hesston, KS. The biomass yields for the 3 varieties of sorghum are based on experimental work performed in Manhattan, KS. The sorghum biomass prices were obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service. Costs for the crop systems are based on the 2014 Kansas State University Herbicide handbook (Thompson et al. 2014), Dhuyvetter, O’Brien, and Tonsor (2014), and Dhuyvetter (2014). The net returns were simulated under five contract scenarios including: a Spot Market contract, a Minimum Price contract, a BCAP Price contract, and 2 levels of the Gross Revenue Guarantee contracts – 60% and 100%. Risk analysis was performed on the simulated net returns through use of the Excel add-in SIMETAR©. Stochastic efficiency analysis was used to evaluate the systems based on the distribution of net returns and risk preferences. The findings are summarized around three important factors influencing farmers’ economic feasibility of growing sorghum for biofuel use: crop systems, risk preferences, and contract specification. Results indicate that the no-till wheat and dual-purpose sorghum crop system without biomass production has the lowest costs and the no-till wheat and photoperiod sensitive sorghum system has the highest production cost. The crop systems that have a no-till option allow for the highest grain and biomass yields. Also, crop systems rotated with wheat are more preferred among producers due to higher net returns. The NTWDPS With system under the BCAP Price contract has the highest net returns and is highest in preference. The findings indicate that the risk aversion does affect the decision to produce sorghum for biofuel, but the effect is not very significant. In terms of contract specification, the results indicate that for Kansas producers, the BCAP Price contract will offer the highest net returns. These findings contribute additional insight on factors affecting Kansas farmers’ economic feasibility of producing sorghum for biofuel and can have important implications for biofuel industry actors and policy makers.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / While understanding consumer decisions about food choices is complex, the nature of wines makes it even more difficult to decipher how consumers arrive at their choices. Given the perceived importance of "local", how willing are consumers to pay for locally-produced wine? And, what characteristics of the wine influence the premium that consumers pay for it? These are the two related questions that this research seeks to address. The research uses a case study approach to explore how five wine characteristics of local Kansas wine influence the premium consumers are willing to pay. The five characteristics are appearance, aroma, body, taste and finish. The study uses four pairs of wine in the following groups: sweet white, dry white, semi-sweet red and dry red. Each pair is made up of a Kansas wine and a non-Kansas wine. A very well-defined set of focus group participants were invited to taste these wine without knowing the identity of the wines and score them according to their characteristics and then provide an indication of how much they are willing to pay. The case results indicate that the focus group participants were willing to discount Kansas wines in all cases of the four pairs. The factors affecting the discount were finish for sweet white wines, appearance for sweet red wines, taste and aroma for dry white and dry red wines. The implication of this exploratory case study is that while most local residents proclaim their willingness to pay a premium for local wines, when tested against national or international competitors, consumers are unwilling to pay a premium for these local wines because the local wines lack the desired quality the international wines have. The information is important because it provides direction for an entrepreneur seeking to develop local wines to focus on understanding and addressing the characteristics which influence consumers' willingness to pay a premium even as she determines which particular wines current players in the local Kansas industry has the potential to be competitive if they address the characteristics upon which they are penalized by consumers. This, despite this being an exploratory case study, it provides important direction for entrepreneurial action.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing, October 2016 / The South African eco-friendly products industry is still growing. With the growth potential existing in this industry, it is evident that marketing practitioners and producers alike need to understand the consumer dynamics involved in order to ensure that the sales of ecofriendly products increase. The growth potential that the researcher refers to is also confirmed by other researchers in their recent work (Sonnenberg, Jacobs, and Momberg, 2014). Eco-friendly products range from eco-friendly shopping bags, green clothing, solar powered electronics, and recyclable goods to name a few. As consumers change to be more environmentally conscious, their choices in products will be influenced by various factors including their decision-making styles. The “eco-friendly” or “going green” terms are commonly used globally for those products that consumers choose to buy because of their minimum negative impact on the environment. The decision-making styles that are most influential when South African consumers buy these products must be known by the relevant marketing practitioners within the South African context in order to ensure that they their strategies gain traction and also influence buying behaviour. Relevant branding and positioning strategies must be implemented by the relevant organisations in order to differentiate their eco-friendly products from others that are available to consumers as the market becomes more competitive with local and international brands being sold online and in retail shops. Investment into ensuring that these products are well-known will decrease the level of impulsive and careless buying of these products as the brands are currently not highly differentiated to the South African consumers. This study sourced primary quantitative data from consumers that buy and use eco-friendly products; a survey questionnaire was used in order to understand the influence of decision-making styles on the careless and impulsive buying of eco-friendly products. The findings of this study will enable the researcher to put forward the results that will demonstrate which decision-making styles mostly influence impulsive and careless buying 2 of eco-friendly products. Practitioners will be able to identify which dynamics to focus on when formulating their marketing strategies in order to effectively differentiate their respective products to consumers / GR2018

Recently, it was reported that humans treat animals that they perceive as aesthetically attractive unequally to the "ugly" ones, turning more attention to them and setting more conservation programs for their protection. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the issue focusing around animal beauty in more detail by examining human preferences towards one of the most popular animal taxon, the birds. In three subsequent studies, we assessed human preferences towards selected bird species: all members of the order of parrots, randomly selected representatives of all non- passerine bird families, and all members of the vividly colored passerine family Pittidae. The first study revealed that the preferred parrots were kept in zoos in higher numbers, regardless of their conservation priority (IUCN status). We discussed possible consequences of this finding and the benefits that may arise in the light of animal conservation if this bias in species preferences was to be considered by conservation specialists. We also found that people preferred long-tailed parrots possessing blue and yellow colors over green ones, which were probably perceived as dull and uninteresting as the majority of the parrots are fully or partially green. In the next two studies, we found that shape, pattern, and overall...

Background: In Sweden, consumers have become more aware that certain types of food could improve their health and overall well-being. In addition, consumers, especially Swedish Millennials, are getting healthier day after day. Accordingly, manufacturers responded to this phenomenon by supplying food that offers extra health benefits (Ring & Mitchell, 2010). These types of food are called Functional Food (FF) and are defined as “food enriched with different components (such as vitamins, minerals or probiotic cultures) or modified in a way that the product provides an additional physiological benefit that might prevent disease and promote health” (Morna, 2015:336). Purpose: The study investigates the Swedish Millennials healthy lifestyle and focuses on their attitudes towards the functional food. Thus, the authors will explore the whole lifestyle and habits of the Swedish Millennials reaching to the core of the research, which is the consumption of the functional food. Method: In order to fulfil the purpose of this study an exploratory method, with qualitative and abductive approach, is chosen to understand the Swedish Millennials attitude towards the functional food. The focus group was the tool to collect the data for the study. In total, five focus groups were conducted with twenty-six participants all of them are Swedish Millennials. The reason behind choosing focus groups tool is to comprehend deeply the Swedish Millennials lifestyle and specifically their attitude towards the functional food. Conclusion: The authors concluded that the Swedish Millennials have a systematic lifestyle and they feel comfortable with the routine. The Swedish Millennial’s attitude towards the functional food is considered positive to the majority of the participants in the research. However, the minority of the Swedish Millennial’s participants have a negative attitude towards the functional food. Therefore, it was concluded that the Swedish Millennials attitude to an extent is positive towards the functional food consumption.